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THE TÁNAISTE HAS said he was “annoyed” by the anonymous briefings held by ministers about Patrick O’Donovan’s health.

Simon Harris was again asked to clarify what was said on a call he had with the media minister on the day he was hospitalised, after denying calling for his resignation.

Speculation was rife in Leinster House over the events that immediately preceded O’Donovan taking ill as he hosted a meeting with EU telecommunications ministers in Limerick earlier this month.

“I did speak to Patrick on Tuesday. I also spoke to Patrick on many other days. I speak to Patrick lots of days,” Harris told RTÉ Radio 1.

“He’s a good colleague, a good friend, somebody I know a sustained period of time.”

He said the characterisation of the call “isn’t reflective of the reality”.

“I’m not getting involved in the politics of ‘let him deny it’,” he said.

Harris said the reason he did not immediately confirm the call had happened was because he was on paternity leave after the birth of his daughter, and “had other things to be doing the last two weeks”.

He said it’s “bizarre” that he is “producing call logs”.

Since being back, he’s visited O’Donovan in hospital. He said he’s “doing well”.

The minister has been open about his experience of living with epilepsy.

“The priority now is on his recovery, and I look forward to welcoming him back to government as soon as he is medically fit to do that,” Harris said.

According to Harris, the media minister has been “doing a good job” in government.

“He was hurt by an anonymous briefing, and rightly so. And to be honest, I was annoyed by it too,” the Tánaiste said.

Paternity leave

Meanwhile, Harris returned to work yesterday after two weeks of paternity leave following the birth of his daughter earlier this month.

Harris is entitled to another nine weeks of paternity leave and was asked on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland if he would be availing of it.

He said that “at the moment, it’s not my intention to take more of that”.

However, he added that he felt it was “very important to take paternity leave”.

“Quite frankly, I feel it’s often vital in a family,” said Harris.

“I do think we need to do more in relation to this as a society, we need to look at how we can empower more families to make the decisions that are right for them.”

Harris also said that “we do need to look at how we better support” female politicians.

“My colleague, Maria Welsh MEP, just gave birth to a baby girl, Nell.

“She’s entitled, in the European Parliament, to continue to vote by proxy while on maternity leave.

“We don’t have those provisions here, and I think we should look at a cross-party basis and see if there’s an appetite for constitutional change that would recognise that actually, men and women can come into Dáil Éireann and can need to take either paternity or maternity leave, and that should be recognised.

“It shouldn’t be classified as ‘sick’, and they should be able to continue to discharge their voting.”

Harris also spoke about paternity leave in an interview with Claire Doherty on Newstalk.

He remarked that “culturally”, he hopes more people will be “accepting that it’s absolutely appropriate for a man to take time after the birth of their new child to be with the child, with their family, and to be at home”.

Harris said some people online said that he was “off babysitting” and said “men have to be empowered to step up and stand up and want to as well”.

He added that that State could do more and remarked: “I am conscious that there can still be financial barriers to people if perhaps there’s only one income in the house.”

Elsewhere, Harris told RTÉ that he “constantly” worries about posting pictures of his children online.

He posted a picture of his newborn daughter to social media but noted that he is “conscious our baby daughter will grow up and will change and the likes”.

“But my older children, I don’t now post photographs of them online.

“Which on one level is a sad reflection for any of us as human beings, but on another level, I think is an important and appropriate thing to do.

“You’re always trying to get that balance right, but the safety and security of my family is obviously always paramount in my mind.”

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper